Only a Kiss
by Kanna37
Summary: Back from her adventures in the past, Kagome is roped into manning the kissing booth at a charity event by her best friend. And despite the fact that she's dreading it, its going to turn out to be the best day of her life...


**Only a Kiss**

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Inuyasha.

~oOo~

"_What_?!" an irate feminine voice yelled in complete and utter outrage. "Yuka, I can't believe you! I know I said I would help, but signing me up to run the_ kissing booth_? Are you out of your mind!?"

Yuka stuck her nose in the air and walked around her best friend's angry form. "You didn't specify what you would and would not do when offering said help, Kagome," she returned huffily. "Everything else was already covered but I couldn't find anyone else to run the kissing booth for the second shift. Since you offered to help, and that was the only thing left that I needed help with, that's where I put you."

Growling under her breath in exasperation since she knew that was only part of the reason despite what her friend would admit, Kagome turned and followed Yuka towards their destination. And despite her frustration with her friend's machinations, she knew she wouldn't turn her down in the end if the girl pushed it – she owed Yuka a hell of a lot.

She'd been stunned when the battle with Naraku had ended with them the winners and Inuyasha had gotten her to give him the jewel as she'd promised in the beginning of their adventures, then promptly taken her to the well and stuffed her down it. Kagome's last sight of the Sengoku Jidai had been of Kikyou's once more living face staring down into the well as she'd chanted a spell to seal it.

Betrayed by someone she'd thought a friend, her heart had been broken – though not by Inuyasha. He'd simply thought she'd still been heartbroken and pining over him because he didn't pay very much attention to her. The truth was, she'd broken her own heart this time by dropping it in front of the one being on Earth that was _guaranteed_ to break it – Sesshoumaru. One small, vengeful part of her mind almost wished she'd bothered to tell Inuyasha about her feelings for his brother just to see the gob-smacked and outraged look on his face once she had.

With the well closed and her heart unwilling and even unable to move on, Kagome had pretty much withdrawn from life. All her other friends - including the ever-annoying Hojo – had eventually abandoned her, though that was actually a blessing. But not Yuka. Yuka had spent the several years since chivying her into opening herself up again – at least to life, though she'd so far been unable to get her to open her _heart_ again.

And truthfully, that was part of the reason behind Yuka's little ploy. It said something to how desperate the girl was to see her get a life that she was even going so far as to use a kissing booth in hopes that someone paying for the privilege of a kiss would actually end up tickling her fancy.

The little bells on the door chimed in counterpoint to her now merely annoyed thoughts as she tried to come up with some good reason she couldn't do the kissing booth so that her friend would not get upset with her refusal. She scowled; it didn't appear promising.

"Yuka," she began as they seated themselves and waited for the waitress to attend them, "I-"

"Stop," her friend said, a rather serene expression on her face. "You promised me, and I'm not letting you out of it. I could hardly find another person for it, seeing as the event is tomorrow! It would not look good for my reputation as a charity event organizer for my people to start backing out and leaving me unable to man the attractions, Kagome. And it's not even as if you'd have to run it all day – just for the second half in the afternoon, which is only about two hours long before the third person who volunteered to run it takes over!"

Groaning inwardly, Kagome conceded – her friend was right, she had promised, and it looked like there was nothing for it. Tomorrow she would be forced to pucker up for the paying customer... and she was dreading it with all her heart. This was the last time she just offered to help her sneaky friend with no restrictions put on the nature of that help.

"Okay, fine," she sighed deeply, "I'll do it. But it's grudgingly-" she glared at her friend, "-I don't need help with my love life... or lack of it. And _this_ was certainly not the way to go about getting me one."

"Pfft." Her friend flicked her fingers, not at all fazed that Kagome had seen through her ploy. The girl was intelligent, after all. "If I left it to you, you'd be an old maid. And I think this way works just fine - you never know who you're gonna meet. Cheer up! Maybe you'll meet the man of your dreams tomorrow!"

"Except I don't want a man, I want a daiyoukai," she mumbled under breath so Yuka wouldn't hear as the waitress appeared with a smile and took her order. She smiled brightly when the woman turned to her and ordered her usual, needing the comfort of familiar things in order to appease the gnawing anxiety she was feeling at being forced to pucker up with a bunch of men she didn't know.

She leaned her head in her hand with another pitiful sigh when the waitress left, and the rest of the lunch date passed in a blur to her, as did the rest of the day.

And all the while, that kissing booth job was looming over her like the Sword of Damocles.

She wished it were Tenseiga, instead, because at least if it fell it wouldn't harm her – and having its sexy owner hovering over her would certainly be a _lot_ more entertaining than playing tickle with a sharp object.

~oOo~

"Omg, Nishiro Saito is here at my charity event!" Yuka squealed, almost hyperventilating. Apparently said person had been seen wandering the grounds as her assistant had just told her in star-struck tones a few moments before. She patted her hand over her racing heart, looking properly shocked when Kagome didn't look at all impressed. "You know, Nishiro Saito? Rich, could probably buy most of Japan – or America – powerful, and the single most gorgeous guy the kami ever created..." she trailed off as Kagome continued to look unenlightened – and uninterested.

Shrugging, Kagome just continued contemplating her coming stint in the kissing booth with downturned lips. "Who hasn't heard of him? Can't say I've ever seen a picture, though."

"Kagome!" her friend wailed, "I can't believe you! Don't you pay any attention to the world around you?"

"Only the parts of if that are bound to affect me. Otherwise... not really," she replied tartly. "Why do I care about some guy who probably got his money the wrong ways, since he isn't a businessman and even I know how many talk show hosts and even businessmen have publicly pondered on just where all that immense wealth came from! I'll probably never even meet the guy, so I don't bother wasting time idly speculating on other people's business!"

"Ugh! You are so _frustrating_," Yuka complained, throwing her hands in the air and giving her friend_ the look_. "His money is family money – they were royalty back in the day and simply managed to keep their wealth, if not their titles. All that 'speculating' you're talking about is just jealous people talking. And you just might meet him – I told you he's here!"

Kagome plopped down on a bench under some trees and scoffed at her friend. "Yeah, right – I'll probably never even catch a glimpse of the guy, and why should I? It's crowded out here, and since I doubt he's so desperate to get a kiss from a girl that he'd bother hitting up the kissing booth, its not likely we'd actually cross paths. Really, Yuka, you need to stop daydreaming!"

"I'm going to laugh at you when you get proved wrong," her friend favored her with a vengeful glare, and then pointedly looked at her watch. "Shouldn't you be heading off to your booth, Kagome?"

Sighing dramatically Kagome stood up and reluctantly headed in the direction of said booth. After a few steps she glanced in surprise at her friend, who had fallen into step beside her.

Correctly interpreting that expression, Yuka smirked at her. "I think I'll come hang out with you for a while so I can see if there's any hotties out there that I might like to snag for myself. I'm not above using any ploy to find myself a guy, not even a kissing booth," she finished loftily as Kagome stared at her incredulously, almost stumbling over her own feet in surprise at her friend's words.

"Won't it just teach you a lesson if you meet a so-called 'hottie' and he turns out to be a serial killer?" she muttered grouchily under her breath, scowling when her friend heard her and scoffed at her.

"Oh, sure, your crazy neighborhood serial killer is going to come out of his dungeon to hang out at a kissing booth at a charity event, Kagome," she shot back sarcastically. "I swear, I really don't know where you got this bleak view of the world – you didn't used to be this way until that two-timing jerk you went around with back in middle school."

Kagome could do little more than mumble at that; Yuka was right – but not for the reasons she thought, and Kagome couldn't really fill her in on the reality she'd been exposed to five hundred years in the past.

Her heart sank as the kissing booth came in sight, and she sighed dejectedly at her friend's triumphant smirk.

She was really, really going to get Yuka back for this...

Sooner or later.

~oOo~

Scaling his senses back just a little more, Sesshoumaru sighed quietly as he wandered around the charity fair that he was secretly sponsoring. It had drawn a large crowd, which was a good thing even if it annoyed his senses and irritated him to be around so many humans at once.

Yes, he'd long ago lost his hatred for the human race on a conceptual basis. Taken individually, there were humans out there that were worthy beings. It was just humanity taken as a whole that he had problems with.

He had secretly sponsored many such charity events for worthy causes, always making sure that his name was kept out of the limelight for he enjoyed the privacy that he had, and had no intentions of losing what little of it one was able to have in this day of paparazzi and professional snoops.

He frowned for a moment then; it seemed that the only time that the snoops couldn't manage to sniff out information was when it was the only bit of information he was interested in finding.

_Kagome..._

Her name was ever at the forefront of his mind, and had been for five hundred years – the five hundred years since his bastard sibling had shoved her down that infernal well and had his insipid bitch seal it. He'd come very close to killing the fool for that mistake.

But he hadn't ever known her surname, at that time not even knowing she'd had one, and so knowing that she'd come from this era and this city was still not enough to track her down. He'd become so aggravated with the lack of results in finding her that he had finally caved and contacted his half-brother... who he still couldn't stand, but he would have to get Kagome's surname from him, because he wasn't willing to miss out on her simply because he couldn't find her.

Inuyasha had scoffed at him, wondering why the hell he seemed so determined to find Kagome – and Sesshoumaru had ignored that question, which had then ended with Inuyasha hanging up on him – _without_ giving him the information he sought. When he'd immediately re-dialed, his brother had told him that he'd find her himself and then bring her to see him – at which point Sesshoumaru had accidentally destroyed his phone by crushing it to death.

He did _not_ want Inuyasha anywhere near Kagome ever again.

And so here he now was, still unable to find the one thing that was really important to him and hoping against hope that even if Inuyasha did go look her up, she would not be impressed by one who'd betrayed her so badly, thus giving him the chance to sneak in under her radar and steal her heart.

A loud 'thunk' sound jerked him from his thoughts, and he scowled lightly when he realized that those thoughts had sent him towards the archery booth – as though he was hoping that the girl would show up to shoot a fake bow at silly targets because she was an archer. _But she was a real archer, not someone who would even bother to play around with such things as those, _he thought with distaste.

And yet he couldn't pull himself away from that spot, allowing the sounds to trigger his memories of her in battle – particularly of the times she'd shot at him. A slight smile caressed his well-molded lips at that memory. _She was so determined... _

"...the kissing booth, Yoshi. The girl running it is really pretty – see? Check her out!"

Sesshoumaru's memories were interrupted yet again, this time by the voice of some young human male and he turned to look over his shoulder at the object of their discussion, the aforementioned kissing booth. From his position all he could see of the woman running it was her back, down which ebony waves ran in a manner rather reminiscent of a certain little miko of his past. He sighed, growling under his breath at himself and his continuing inability to just _find_ the girl.

Oh, yes, he was really going to kill his half-sibling.

He continued to stare absently in the direction of the unknown woman's back as the human males moved over to the booth, arguing about doing the deed and kissing the girl. He snorted idly – humans were still fools, no matter the fact that he no longer exactly hated them.

His attention was arrested as the voice of the event planner came from the booth, and his curiosity was engaged – what was Yokoyama Yuka doing in the kissing booth? Oh, yes, he knew every detail about this event and who had been hired to run it, though none of those doing so had known about him.

It was the woman's next words that completely captured his attention, and in an instant the disguised inuyoukai was in hunting mode, too thrilled at hearing that name to even consider that probability would be against it really being the Kagome he was searching for.

He moved closer to the booth, allowing his scaled back sense of smell to return to its normal strength, and the moment that it did he almost lost control of himself and his concealing spell, revealing the truth of what he was to a generation of people that had been taught all their lives that such things as youkai did not exist, and indeed never had.

Because the glorious scent that infiltrated his sensitive nasal passages in that moment was indeed_ his _Kagome's scent – he'd never forgotten it and never would, no matter how many centuries came and went.

Entire body tensed like steel cable, Sesshoumaru was forced to fight harder to master himself in that moment than he ever had been before, because all he wanted to do was scare every human around away and take his miko and run.

It took a few minutes for him to regain his sense, and once he had and his muscles had unlocked he sauntered casually forward, trying to catch a glimpse of her without giving himself away. He wasn't certain of what her reaction would be – if she even recognized him at all under his concealing spell and he was determined to move slowly so as not to frighten her.

That resolve was quickly thrown out the door when a certain realization came to him. Kissing booth. Kagome. Men. Men kissing Kagome.

_Oh, hell no._

And then his youki exploded.

Screams and shouts of, "Earthquake!" were heard as the ground shook for a few moments, and within seconds the area around the kissing booth was totally deserted.

_Well, it certainly worked to clear all those damned humans away, _he thought distantly as he looked up and met Kagome's stunned gaze. With no one blocking the way she was finally fully revealed to the now very impatient daiyoukai and he froze, just staring into her eyes and then looking her over, taking in the changes.

Kagome was no less trapped in eyes the color of old gold, knowing who was standing before her even with his concealing spell – which was barely holding together at the moment due to his still flaring youki.

"Sesshoumaru," she whispered, and his eyes fell closed as something that had been pained and raw inside him was finally soothed. Before he could answer, though, someone else did and his eyes opened again.

"Kagome," Yuka choked, "that's not whoever your thinking it is. That's Nishiro, Saito."

Elegant stride the same as it always had been Sesshoumaru moved closer to the hypnotized woman, not stopping until he was standing right in front of her. "Kagome," he replied, both of them ignoring the other woman who was currently staring at them gape-jawed as she took in the fact that her best friend knew Nishiro, Saito – but by a different name. Was that some online handle that he played one of the many alternate reality games available in cyberspace under? But then how would they have recognized each other in the flesh?

"It has been a long time," he continued, still ignoring the other woman. His lips turned down for a moment as the shine of tears in her eyes brightened and the liquid drops cascaded down her cheeks.

She tried to say something but it just came out as a muffled sob, and Sesshoumaru wanted nothing more in that moment to take her away and comfort her and love her – but the pesky humans had begun filtering back when their 'earthquake' faded away and was not followed by any more movement. With an irritated frown he finally broke her gaze and looked around at the males once more beginning to congregate around this particular booth.

_Not happening,_ he growled to himself, and coming up with an idea he turned and addressed the gathered males. "I'm sorry, but this booth is now closed." And with that he walked around to the little door and stepped in, eyeing the inside of the tent for the ties that would close the front of the booth up. The sound of disappointed voices made him smirk just a little as he untied the flaps so he could cover the booth over.

Kagome, trying to wipe her eyes and face discreetly started to say something but nothing would come, and it fell to Yuka to ask what the hell was going on.

"We've lost all of that money that would have come in," she muttered in agitation, not sure what to make of what was happening – though she wanted to gloat for a moment as she was proved right about Kagome's chances of meeting up with the wealthy businessman. First things first, though... "This is going to be bad for my reputation!"

Sesshoumaru finally spared her a glance out of eyes that froze the moment they left Kagome. He reached into his pocket and took out his wallet, quickly pulling some bills out and tossing them in Yuka's direction. "This should more than take care of what you would have made from Kagome's shift here in the booth," he said with a low growl.

He ignored her gasp as she picked up the five hundred thousand yen or so he'd just tossed at her to return to his perusal of his own personal goddess – one who it seemed was finally waking up from her shock at his sudden appearance.

She blinked, and then blinked again and a small frown forked her brow. "Well, that's definitely you, Sesshoumaru. Just as haughty and bossy as you ever were. I'm surprised you didn't demand she address you as 'sama'," she said with a bit of a disgruntled twitch of her pretty lips as she wiped surreptitiously again at her watering eyes.

Gaze irrepressibly drawn to those same lips he said, "Oh, I've changed, my pretty little miko, but my station never will. I will always be a royal – it matters not to me what the humans of this era have to say about it, either."

Kagome practically jumped, eyes wide with shock at what he was saying in front of a very interested – and confused – Yuka. "What are you doing?" she hissed, flicking her gaze over at her friend and then back to him. "We aren't exactly alone in here, you know!"

"And?" he shrugged. "I am not concerned with your friend, Kagome, but with you. I was most... discomposed when you disappeared from my era."

"Hey! That wasn't my fault - it was Inuyasha's!" she defended hotly, fists clenched.

"Oh, I am very aware of whose fault it was. And I made sure he paid for his transgression in doing so – very, very painfully. I am half tempted to do it again, just for all the centuries worth of frustration that one move of his cost me, for all the time and effort I've spent searching for you and not finding you." He smiled, then, fangs gleaming for a split second in the light and drawing Kagome's mesmerized gaze. That smile widened into a wicked smirk as he realized that she was simply unable to look away from him, and his arousal surged so fast at her heated perusal of him that he felt light-headed for a moment. He gritted his teeth and fought back his need.

Suspicious now Kagome took a step back, looking at him out of apprehensive blue eyes, not sure why he would be looking for her. Sure she was in love with him, but as far as she was aware he was certainly no fan of hers.

"Why are you here, Sesshoumaru?" she asked softly, for the moment passing over the fact that he'd just given the information that his brother was still alive away. If that little traitor was still around she'd be happy to give him some more pain to think about herself - but that was for later. For later, _if_ she survived her meeting with this daiyoukai.

"Have you not guessed, Kagome?" he questioned in return just as softly, stepping forward to once more invade her personal space and continuing to ignore the other woman in the tent with them, who was watching and listening with avid ears.

Kagome shook her head slowly, almost as though she was afraid to move too suddenly.

His wicked grin became almost iniquitous in that moment and she couldn't help the full body shudder that ran down her spine, prickled at her skin, and constricted her throat.

He lifted a hand and brushed a lock of hair back over her shoulder, running his fingers in the lightest of caresses over the skin of her shoulder and neck, and tightened even more in arousal as her eyes fell closed and her lips parted on a tiny moan.

Interrupted once again by Yuka Sesshoumaru scowled, getting frustrated at the interference.

"Woah, woah, woah," the woman was saying, waving her hands around in the universal signal for 'stop'. "Okay, whatever's going on here this is a kissing booth. Saito-sama, your donation was very generous but closing the booth down is not acceptable."

"Then you can take over the job of kissing the paying customer, Yokoyama-san. But I will not have Kagome's lips being defiled by contact with anyone, are we clear?" his gaze shifted back to the young woman in question, who was blushing quite prettily.

"Why would you care who 'defiles' me, Sesshoumaru?" Kagome snapped, her arms folded over chest almost defensively.

"Because _I_ am the only one allowed to... _defile_ you, miko," he rumbled from deep in his chest, his eyes flaring redly for a moment. "None other may touch what belongs to me."

Jaw dropping and eyes widening, Kagome stared up at the daiyoukai in shock at his blatant words of ownership, and while one side of her was overjoyed to hear that he was at the least attracted to her she just couldn't let the haughtiness of the male go.

"You, you... oh, you arrogant _ass_!" she finally managed to get out, pulling at her own hair in frustration. "You're just as bad as Inuyasha!"

Smirk dropping off his face at that, he reached out and yanked her into his chest. "You are most definitely going to pay for that insult, Kagome," he murmured warningly before leaning down and taking advantage of the fact that she was about to yell at him.

Drawing in a breath to tell him where he could get off, she instead found her mouth occupied by more than just her own tongue and she went limp and submissive in a single second as heat and desire surged through the air around them like lightening.

_Oh... this is... this is... Sesshoumaru is kissing me, _she thought disjointedly. _Oh my god is he kissing me! _

Just then her brain threw in the towel and decided to shut down, and Kagome didn't bother to argue – without her mind to interfere she could simply enjoy what the daiyoukai of her dreams was doing to her.

And enjoy it she did.

However, when he pulled back to look at her with that male-pride filled stare of his she remembered her ire and blushed hotly, glaring up at the disguised daiyoukai with narrowed eyes. "Well, you are!" she exclaimed, determinedly ignoring her breathlessness. "You're both so damn arrogant!"

Sesshoumaru shook his head, now smirking at her flushed countenance. "Inappropriate word usage, miko," he rebutted haughtily. "Arrogance is _undeserved_ pride. My pride is _thoroughly_ deserved." He paused, then finished with, "However... in Inuyasha's case you are correct. He _is_ arrogant."

That statement was just too much and the overwhelmed girl shook her head, gaping up at him with disbelief, though after a moment she sighed and let it go. After all, Sesshoumaru had been this way all his life – there was little chance she'd be able to bring him down a few notches. It was just too ingrained in him to be the way he was – and she didn't really want to change him, anyway – she loved him the way he was, arrogance and all.

"And if that statement doesn't prove my point, then nothing will," was all she said, and with a triumphant glow in his eyes Sesshoumaru pulled her back into his chest and took over her lips again, not caring at all that Yuka had re-opened the booth and now there were people staring at him as he kissed the living daylights out of a very compliant Kagome.

When they broke apart this time Kagome was flushed a deep rose and trembling. She met his gaze with hazy eyes and said, "Wow... what a wonderful way to say hello. Could we do that one more time – you know, so I can make sure this is real? I might be imagining things again."

"Imagining things?" her partner murmured with amusement. "Why miko, is that to say that you have had... _imaginings_ of me before?"

"Oh, shut up and just kiss me again already," she groused before pulling his quirked lips back down to hers, so caught up in his presence that she still hadn't noticed their audience.

She was brought back to earth with a thump at a rather loud comment from one of the guys that had once more gathered. "_Damnnn._.. how much does it cost to get a kiss like _that_? I've got fifty thousand yen, is that enough?"

Turning even redder almost instantly she started to pull away but was caught off-guard when Sesshoumaru lifted his head to glare over at the speaker. "My fiancee's kisses are not for sale," he stated frigidly, his cold glare sending the young man off into the crowd in a hurry as he disappeared with alacrity.

"Fiancee?" Kagome whispered in shock at the same moment that Yuka squealed, "Fiancee?!" at such a high pitch that practically the entire crowd surrounding the area heard.

The whispers immediately started and Sesshoumaru smirked, knowing that by the time the event was over everyone who'd attended would have heard the news. And it would spread from there like a wildfire, making sure that _all_ would soon know that Nishiro, Saito had found the woman he'd been searching for all his life.

"Yes," he stated with cool confidence, knowing that Kagome would not deny him. "Fiancee."

And then he lowered his head once more and took her lips and Kagome went back under, completely forgetting their audience again as she practically drowned in the fire that spilled through her veins every time Sesshoumaru touched her.

The hungry daiyoukai never forgot what she said to him when he drew back just a little to let her breathe again.

"Yes... I think I like this hello very much. From now on, you always have to say hello to me _just like this_."

He took her words to heart, and over the next centuries he always said hello to his wife and mate in just that same way...

With no words, only a kiss.

_Owari_

A/N: I hope everyone enjoys this light-hearted little romance that I've had sitting in one of my folders for a couple years. I forgot I'd even written it, funny enough.

Amber


End file.
